Remove pop-up ads, adware, malware on Mac (Safari,Chrome,Firefox)

Adware, browser hijacker, unwanted pop-up ads and malware – are something that did not exist before, but began to appear on Apple Mac OS recently. This type of malicious software focuses only on one thing – making money through traffic generation, display annoying advertising and browser redirect to different malicious and misleading web sites.

These malicious programs fall into the system is not due to a variety of vulnerabilities in the Mac OS, but due to user carelessness during the installation of free software downloaded from the Internet. As they say, free cheese is only in a mousetrap, and the free program is a potential opportunity to infect your Apple Mac with adware, browser hijacker, malware and annoying pop-up ads. It’s simple, the freeware installer includes the optional potentially unwanted applications. So, be very careful when you agree to install anything. The best way is disable (uncheck) all optional software in which you are unsure or that causes even a slightest suspicion. The main thing you should remember, you do not need to install the optional software which you do not trust!

freeware offers to install a browser hijacker

freeware offers to install adware

The example, that shown above, is the uTorrent application. When you install it, if not carefully read the information that is displayed, you can infect your Mac with unwanted software such as browser hijacker and adware which will change the browser’s home page and will be display a lot of annoying pop-ups and advertisements withing the Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Very often the appearance of adware and malware on your Apple Mac can also be identified by the following symptoms:

advertising banners and contextual ad links appeared on the pages where it never was before

on various web-sites, different words and phrases have been replaced by links

the Safari, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox has become open pages offering to update the video player, install a new media player or update adobe flash player

you found new applications that you do not have installed on your Mac

Even if you notice one of the above symptoms, it is a reason to check your Apple Mac and clean it. The guide below will help to remove the malware and adware, get rid of annoying popup ads and browser redirects to malicious and misleading websites.

How to remove pop-up ads, adware, malware on Mac (step-by-step guide)

The following instructions is a full step-by-step guide, which will help you to get id of unwanted popups and browser hijacker in Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Moreover, the steps below will assist you to remove adware, malware and toolbars that your Apple Mac may be infected. Please do the instructions step by step. If you need a help or have any questions, then ask for our assistance here or type a comment below.

1. Uninstall unwanted and suspicious software

Open Finder and click Applications.

Look for the unused, unknown, unwanted and suspicious applications, right click to it and select Move to Trash or drag it from the Applications folder to the Trash. Most important, scroll through the all list, and move to trash any unknown and suspicious applications. Don’t forget, choose Finder -> Empty Trash.

Safari

Click Safai menu and select Preferences.

It will open the Safari Preferences window. Next, click the “Extensions” tab. Look for the unknown and suspicious extensions on left panel. Most likely, one or more of them are responsible for the appearance of pop-up ads and Safari browser redirect to unwanted web pages. Once you have found a suspicious extension, select it, then click on the “Uninstall” button. Most important to remove all unknown extensions from Safari!

Find the “Homepage” text field and type into it “https://www.google.com”. Once finished, you will get rid of unwanted pop-ups that caused by malicious extensions. It will also remove the browser redirect and restore your home page and search engine to Google.

Firefox

Open Firefox. Type into the address bar “about:support”.

Press Enter. It will open the Troubleshooting Information screen as shown below.

Click on the “Reset Firefox” button. It will open the confirmation prompt. Click to “Reset Firefox” button once again. When the process is complete, the malicious browser’s extension will be disabled, your browser’s setting such as home page, new tab page and search engine return to the state that it was when you first install the Firefox on the Mac.

Chrome

It will open the Chrome settings screen. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the “Show advanced settings”. Look the example below.

Chrome’s advanced settings should now be displayed. Scroll down until the “Reset browser settings”. Next, click on the “Reset browser settings” button. It will open the confirmation prompt. Click to “Reset” button to continue. When the task is complete, your browser’s settings will return to its default state, your home page and search engine will be restored and malicious extensions are disabled.

Once downloaded, start it. Click on the “Scan” button to start a system scan for malicious software such as browser hijacker, adware and toolbars.

When the scan is finished, make sure all entries have “checkmark” and click “Remove Selected Items” button. MalwareBytes Anti-malware for Mac will start to remove all malicious files and folders.

4. Block pop-up ads and unwanted sites

To increase your security and protect your computer against unwanted pop-up ads and malicious web sites, you need to use an application that blocks access to dangerous ads and web-pages. Moreover, the software can block the display of intrusive advertising, which also leads to faster loading of websites and reduce the consumption of web traffic.

In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you start your Apple Mac, AdGuard will start automatically and block unwanted pop-up ads, as well as other malicious or misleading web page. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply click on the AdGuard icon.

The End

After completing these instructions, your Mac should be clean from annoying pop-up ads, browser hijacker, malware and adware. The Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari will no longer show the advertising banners, pop-ups and unwanted ads. Unfortunately, the authors of malicious software are constantly updating malware and adware, making difficult to clean the Apple Mac. Therefore, if this step-by-step guide does not help you, then you have caught a new type of malicious software, and then the best option – ask for help on our forum.